I'm working on several projects at the moment that require the integration of a blog into a wider commercial online presence. During one conversation we got into discussing, why is it some blogs die, yet others are so successful - what are the success factors? I jotted down the notes from that conversation during my train journey home and thought that I'd share them with you.
Your audience are searching for information, something of value to help with decision making so it helps enormously if they can buy into real people as a part of that process. This is where the notion of thought leadership is powerful, where I can be a trusted source for you about a topic. I think this is why video blogs or blogs using video are especially helpful - not only is it more engaging as a medium, video also engenders trust, you get to know more about the people behind the blog because you see them. Keep people in your business involved in the blog, have a lead blogger who's personality comes out, and ideally involve your customers too. Check out thefordstory.com as a shining example.
Having a theme wrap around your content is an enormous advantage since it ties the brand and a benefit to your blog. It also ensures that your content is cohesive no matter where your share it. Eloqua do a great job of this. They refer to all of their social outposts and their blog as being related to 'revenue' - The Revenue Blog - this allows their audience to dig deeper into the commercial offering of Eloqua with a clear expectation. To support that, also tie back to your brand in a graphical sense with direct or indirect references, just be true to the topic you're covering in the process and worry less about pitching "the business", people will dig deeper if they trust you.
Blogs can look so, well, blog like! Though tools like WordPress are great out of the box you can do so much more with them to make it 'yours'. So, as your site grows invest in evolving the site design as a part of point 2 (above), go beyond expectations - make your blog memorable. The Innocent blog has achieved this - it ties brand personality, real people and creativity - and it's still dead easy to find stuff, access photos and even play with crafted web assets and media, it's very on-brand for a business like Innocent.
This is the important one - blogs aren't well placed for broadcasting sales messages so cut the press releases and repeated salesy case studies that don't truly value - you know when you're doing it! The thing is, nobody cares! Why? If they wanted to buy and learn about the latest offer do you think they'd look at your blog? No, a user would go to the commercial part of your site. Keep the content relevant to the user journey of exploring and learning. Be worth reading, following and referring. Of course weaving in product stories tactfully and creatively is a great and necessary skill - the better your product or service is then the easier that is to do! The Mashable blog does quality content so well - they also make sure that sharing their content is really easy. Of course this is where Smart Insights works hard too. 🙂
What's your Return in ROI for the blog - more readers, shares, ebook downloads, traffic or sales leads directed to the commercial side of your business? Define this value for your blog and then find out what you can offer in information terms to your audience to make it happen. What knowledge is locked in your business that needs to get out? Overlay that with the pain points of your customers - what are they searching for from a blog like yours? The over-lap between the two is the sweet spot - the relevance both to your audience and commercially. Remember, your audience spend 99.9% of their time thinking about other stuff than your product or service - so approaching your blog the right way around makes more sense to deliver the return that you need.
Get off your own blog! Once you're up and running it's time to also start sharing and blogging in other places, other outposts and of course other blogs. Interacting where your audience already is - it's the most obvious method, so go find them. As they saying goes, "take the mountain to Mohammed". For example, I heard Darren Rowse (of ProBlogger guru fame) saying that for his photography blog they went to Flickr and started a group there. To ensure maximum return on time, identify and connect with influencers in your market and be valuable to them, so that you're worth sharing with their (wider) audience. A better tactic over randomly finding places to interact with your audience. Don't forget that social networks like Facebook either. Social networks matter to bloggers, you can deepen reader engagement - ask good questions and share new ideas for feedback. If you're B2B then the same thinking applies to LinkedIn alongside other related portals and communities.
By Danyl Bosomworth
Dan helped to co-found Smart Insights in 2010 and acted as Marketing Director until leaving in November 2014 to focus on his other role as Managing Director of First 10 Digital. His experience spans brand development and digital marketing, with roles both agency and client side for nearly 20 years. Creative, passionate and focussed, his goal is on commercial success whilst increasing brand equity through effective integration and remembering that marketing is about real people. Dan's interests and recent experience span digital strategy, social media, and eCRM. You can learn more about Dan's background here Linked In.
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